Ex-Pinellas fugitive sentenced on bank, mail fraud charges

A former Pinellas County attorney who went on the run for three years after pleading guilty on fraud charges was sentenced today to more than 11 years in federal prison.

A judge on Tuesday sentenced Mark W. Jackson, 62, to 11 years and three months, and ordered him to serve five years of supervised released on bank and mail fraud conspiracy charges.

Jackson must pay more than $166,000 in restitution, court records show.

According to the court records, Jackson pleaded guilty in August 2008 but fled prior to being sentenced.

Jackson went missing from February 2009 to March 2012, but was arrested by local authorities in North Carolina after committing offenses similar to those with which he was charged, court records show.

Court records show Jackson and a co-conspirator, William Wayne Dykstra, stole mail containing personal information and business checks from 2000 until 2004. They then produced counterfeit documents, including unlawfully obtained copies of valid Florida driver’s licenses.

The men used the false IDs to open bank accounts, and produce and cash counterfeit personal and business checks.

Dykstra pleaded guilty in 2008, and in 2009 was sentenced to two years, nine months in federal prison.